~ Day by day with RA …

What a Difference a Decade Makes

Everyone knows that the ratio of dog years to people years is 7:1. But I had a vet explain to me once that it’s not a linear relationship. At one year old, a dog is more like a late teenager — 17 or 18 — not a child of seven.

I think people are like that as well — we age at different rates at different times in our lives. If you look over a longer span of time, say a decade, this becomes more evident.

The difference between a 10-year-old and a 20-year-old is significant. However, the difference between a 35-year-old and a 45-year-old isn’t so much.

A friend of mine recently took his parents to Las Vegas, and he commented to me what a difference 10 years makes. Apparently 10 years ago they took a similar trip and his parents enjoyed the active schedule. This trip, 10 years later, they tired much more quickly and skipped some of the plans he’d made.

I think once we reach a certain point in our adulthood, our rate of aging stabilizes. It varies, but if you think about it, we tend to age about the same rate from about 25 to about 60.

However, I’m also starting to suspect that once we hit a certain point, the aging processes changes again, this time accelerating — not to the point it does during puberty — but faster than it does during midlife. The age difference between 60 and 70 seems to be greater than, for example, between 50 and 60.

There isn’t a real point to this post other than I think we get a bit complacent in our adulthood. We tend to take for granted that the way we look or feel will generally be the way we look or feel next year or even 10 years from now. If aging does, in fact, accelerate at some point, we will actually be “old”. Things like chronic illness and bad lifestyles will get us there earlier rather than later.

Here’s hoping you have a youthful step in your day today. Thanks for checking in.